Appendix B. A Quick Look at Line Matrix PrintingCharacter FormationThe IBM 6500–v is an impact printer: it creates characters by printing ink dots onpaper. Dots overlap to produce a solid-appearing character of uniform density. Thedots are made by an assembly of steel hammers mounted on a rapidly oscillatingshuttle. The hammers strike the paper through a moving ink ribbon. The dotpatterns of characters are mapped in printer memory on invisible matrices, asshown in Figure 19.Matrix visible only tothe printerDot ColumnDot RowInk dots formed byhammer tips Character RowCharacter ColumnC2qu0115Figure 19. Typical Character Formation© Copyright IBM Corp. 2005 261
